Chanachur from Bengal or Bombay mix or simply a mixture

Street food differs from region to region and country to country, but there is some similarity in the different snacky mixtures available on the streets of India. It is a various of puffed rice, chola (cooked beans of different types depending on the region), maybe boondi, finely chopped tomatoes, onion, coriander and most important - spices! Most of the snacks are sweet and sour and a bit hot to taste.

This vendor selling the mixture is from Bengal.

This street snack from Gujarat comprises of various spices and condiments and also a chivda or papdi mixture.

The tomato sauce, green chillies and onion can add a lot of taste to the chivda flakes which are probably made of gram flour or besan.

Here on a Puducherry beach there is some mixture which is mixed with grated raw mango and peanuts to make a tasty snack. And of course red chilly powder and other spices are used to make it tasty.

You might also like Road-side food stalls or street food or check out all the photos filed under Food or Snacks. 

Or Cambodian Sticky Rice street food 

Ice cream vendor carts

These are photographs of ice-cream carts in India. The first one is a well known brand, Kwality Walls.

However, most of the ice-cream carts that are seen roaming around the city sell relatively unknown brands, and some of them may not be safe to eat! This photo is taken in Puducherry.

An unknown brand of ice-cream, called Bharkadevi Mix Ice-cream! Best to stay away!

Ice-cream of a well known brand, Mother Dairy Chocolate Chip ice-cream being eaten from a cup.

These photographs might interest you: Muesli Nutrition Comparison and misleading labelling or Monkey eating Ice golas! or Young girls enjoying an ice-cream bar or High Calorie Food - Sausages and Fries or Snacks from India
Or check out any of the labels below this post.

Pani Puri or Gol Gappa or phuchka vendors

It is known as Pani Puri in Western India, Phuchka in Eastern India and Gol Gappa in the North. And it's one of the most popular snacks. Small round deep fried puris stuffed with a mixture of mashed vegetables and chick peas, it is dipped in flavoured watery syrup which tastes sweet and sour and then popped whole into the mouth!

It is available in every corner of India, although it not so much in Southern India. Here is a man at a popular tourist spot with his ready-made puris, waiting for customers.

Here is a customer, a little girl who has just finished a plate of pani puris! Her mother is scrambling for some change in her purse. The yellow container has the flavoured water.

A Gol Gappa vendor on the beach. Hygeine is usually an issue because water is used and that is why more and more Indians prefer to make it at home. Fancy places use bottled water.

Your might also like:  Colorful synthetic drinks sold on the streets of India or Coconut water vendor in India or Fruit Vendors vs supermarkets in India or Road-side food stalls or street food in India or Young woman selling raw mango slices in South India or Sugarcane juice vendors

Healthy snacks

These pictures are from a popular tourist spot - Mahabaleshwar. Tourists throng here to see the sights at the hill station and they also get treated to a lot of snacky food - but snacks like bowls of fresh fruits and vegetables and fresh juice and buttermilk! Not processed food. No sugar laden chemical laden soft drinks and no sandwiches or burgers. Lots of berries, fruits, corn cobs, carrots and lemon juice and butter milk!

These are not markets...but snack joints. Lets hope they stay this way.

A woman vendor in a pink sari boiling corn to serve as a snack to tourists.

Lot of berries - black berries, mulberries and strawberries. A man selling lemon juice in the background.

This woman is making fresh buttlermilk to be served up in glasses to drink on a hot day. A healthy and refreshing drink

Chaat or savory snacks in India or  Coconut water vendor in India or  Colorful synthetic drinks sold on the streets of India or Road-side food stalls or street food or
Check out all the photos filed under the label Food or all photographs of vendors or if you are looking for fruit and vegetables being sold try photos of Markets.

Spice vendors in an Indian marketplace

Here is a vendor selling spices in an open outdoor market. Every spice from turmeric and red chilly powder to cinnamon and cloves and coriander seeds.

Another spice vendor sitting with sacks of spices like dried red chillies, coriander seeds, turmeric powder and red chilly powder. A manual weighing scale in the background.

More photos: Herbs and Spices in boxes or Chaat or savory snacks in India or check out all the photos filed under the label Food or all photographs of vendors.

Koh Samui vendors outside tourist spots

Vendors and food stalls on the island of Koh Samui, Thailand.

A woman selling short eats and snacks outside a tourist spot on the island of Koh Samui in Thailand. Eating food from vendors is inexpensive. You get a wide variety from the different vendors.

A young woman vendor selling food in sealed packets on the island of  Koh Samui, Thailand.

A young man selling a wide variety of snacks like banana pancakes and different type of sandwiches on the island of Koh Samui in Thailand. He has a gas cylinder attached to his mobile cart. He cooks here.

Related Images: Koh Samui Outdoor Airport or Fishing Trawlers in the Gulf of Thailand
Fruit Vendors vs supermarkets in India or Road-side food stalls or street food in India or Young woman selling raw mango slices in South India.
Or check out all the images taken in Thailand.

Fruit Vendors vs supermarkets

This is how easy it is for consumers to access produce. Simply walk out of their building and usually they will find some vendor selling fruits or vegetables. They need to do it, as most Indians are poor and do not own personal transport. Or if they do, the expense of gas or petrol pinches their pocket. And these fruit vendors are willing to bargain but there is a catch. If you do not know the current prices you can be taken for a ride. In fact alighting from a car guarantees that the prices will be jacked up.

Here are two women in South India chatting with each other as they sell fresh apples, bananas, tangerines and grapes.  This picture was taken in Madurai.

All types of fruits can be found on the streets in India, just a short walk away. This includes even produce such as sugarcane which many Indians love to eat raw.  Here is a woman on a Thane's Gokhale Road selling bananas and sugarcane sticks.

These fruit vendors line up on the highway to catch customers leaving town. Usually the produce is fresher than what one can get in city markets. These fruits are not cheap, but they are good.

Another fruit vendor on a highway. He is selling custard apples and guavas which are bright red from the inside.

Here is an antiseptic environment of a supermarket. Fruits and vegetables are stacked in the centre of the room. This photograph was shot in Pune.

The section of a supermarket where fruits and vegetables are sold. Cleaner and as there are fixed prices at least you know that the shop is not cheating you. There is not hassle of bargaining. This photograph is from D-Mart.

More images and sketches of Fruits or photos of Markets.

Or you might also like Juices and Milk display at supermarkets in India or Supermarket pictures - crockery, tomato puree, coconut milk, cheese and butter

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Sugarcane juice vendors

Photographs of sugarcane juice vendors. Fresh sugarcane juice is a popular juice in India and India is the second largest producer of sugarcane after Brazil. At one time this freshly squeezed juice was the most popular beverage on Indian streets, popular not just because of its nutritious value but also because of its low price. About a decade ago every street corner had a sugarcane juice stall  but today these stalls have reduced in number. However you can still see them in plenty in the crowded inner city areas.

This one is a shot from Goa and this boy vendor has a four-wheeled cart on which he has a machine which does the squeezing of the sugarcane juice. Long sticks of sugarcane can be seen on the cart alongwith the sugarcane juice vending machine.  This juice is very sweet and has a low glycemic index and has 84 calories for every 100 gms of juice. No fat, no cholesterol and is rich. in anti-oxidants. A great source of energy as it is mostly carbohydrate.

This shop in Pune sells sugar cane juice.

A sugarcane vendor in Kolkata. As can be seen here the juice is extracted manually.

Sugarcane juice shop with customers waiting. This is on the outskirts of Pune city.

However crowded the pavement, a sugarcane wala manages to squeeze inbetween people, vendors and trees! Stacks of sugarcane lie in his shop and this gives an idea of the high number of customers he gets every day. This photo is from Mumbai.

A sugarcane juice stall outside a tourist spot in Hyderabad.

Related Images: Another very popular street drink in India: Coconut water vendor in India or images of Sugarcane fields.
Images filed under "Beverages" or "Food" or "Vendors" or "Occupations"

Cycle carts with three wheels

Cycle carts to carry goods are used frequently in towns and cities of India. These three-wheeled carts have a cycle attached which makes it easy to maintain and inexpensive to run. They have a small load carrying capacity. However these vehicles are used in fairly innovative ways as the first picture demonstrates.


This man is smoking a bidi as he rides his cycle cart on a cold morning near Jaipur, in Rajasthan. Believe it or not this small cyclecart is carrying long flexible pipes which are potruding for several feet, if not meters, outside his vehicle. This would be considered a dangerous vehicle on the roads of any developed country but for India, this is common. The traffic police would not bother to penalize this driver who is trying to earn a living.

This is a smaller cycle cart which is being used to a large wicker basket full of vegetables. Some vegetable vendors carry this on their heads and a lucky few have a vehicle to cart it around in. This photograph was shot in Kolkata.

This man is carrying a sheet or sheets of metal on his cycle cart. A photograph from Kolkata.

Another image shot in Kolkata, of a cycle-cart driver fixing a wheel.

Related Images: Camel cart and Bullock cart or Wooden hand carts with four wheels - Photos and Sketches 

or Cycle Rickshaws in India or Hand-Pulled Rickshaws or try the label "Transport" for pictures of a variety of vehicles.

Vegetable Vendors

Photos and close-ups of vegetable vendors. Here is a vendor fast asleep! He selling pumpkins and also the large brown skinned root vegetables commonly consumed in India. Not sure what they are called. Perhaps this shop doubles up as a home, because a level higher one can glimpse a woman sleeping. A picture of a god is also seen in the background.

A vegetable vendor selling pumpkins, raw bananas (eaten as a vegetable) and also root vegetables common in India and China.

A bored vegetable vendor with bright purple brinjals for sale. Beans and capsicum can be seen on the side.

Another bored vendor, waiting for customers. She is selling radish,

Related Images: Vegetable Markets in India or click any of the labels below this post.

Woman selling hair outside temple in India

A photograph of a woman outside a temple in Madurai selling actual hair. People often shave their heads at temples because of some religious ritual and these women take this hair and sell it, often to hair dressers or wig makers.

Related Images: Indian Hair stylists at work in small salons

Cooking on pavements in India

Cooking spilling out onto pavements is common all over India.These are photographs of people cooking on the streets and pavements in India.

The first two pictures are shot in Rajasthan, a state in North India. In this first one there are people with open stoves on the pavements. The eatery or shop has encroached upon the pavement and hot oil is boiling out there as people pass by.  A gas cylinder is casually attached to the gas stove.

Something is frying here in the hot oil, outdoors on the side of the road. The clutter around the stove is dangerous for passers-by.

Cooking outdoors is now banned in Mumbai,  but continues nevertheless. The old man is stirring a small black kadhai or pot on a mini gas stove. This photo has been taken on Mumbai streets.

Not just commercial establishments, but also individuals cook on pavements. One is used to seeing slum-dwellers cook on pavements outside their huts, but this picture is of a homeless person family cooking in the middle of the day in a posh locality near Churchgate in South Mumbai. Slums are nowhere in sight. Wood is being used to light up a small makeshift stove made with bricks. The girls was (not surprisingly) upset that the photograph was being clicked as this area is regularly policed as it is a posh area. 

Related Images: Road-side food stalls or street food or Road side vendors in India blocking the pavements

Flower sellers in shops, markets and on the road-side in India

The use of fresh flowers in India are many. They are offered to gods, used as ornaments for the hair and the home, and also as gift items.

These are photographs of people selling flowers in India. There are more women than men in this area of selling. You find flower-sellers in busy markets as well as at street corners and invariably outside temples.

This is a woman in a busy vegetable market in her small flower shop. She is selling flower garlands of marigold and also loose flowers to be used in poojas.

Indian women often weave small white and orange fragant and sweet smelling flowers into a "gajra" and decorate their hair with it. Flowers are used instead of perfume or fragrance. This woman is selling these small flowers loose as well as strung together in a garland.

This man is outside a temple, selling garlands to be used as an offering to God.

This is a small street corner shop selling flower bouquets. These type of shops are found very frequently nowadays as flowers have become popular gifts.

Another man, a flower-seller, in a vegetable market, selling garlands and betel nut leaves.

Another woman selling gajras (flower decorations for the hair) for women to decorate their hair with.

Related Viewing: Unusual Hibiscus or for more images of flowers try the label "Flowers"